19 living and four dead hostages so far in high fire
So far, Hamas and Israel have starred seven hostage exchanges for Palestinian prisoners. The first took place on the first day of Alto El Fuego, when three civilian women were released: the British-Israelí Emily Damari (28 years old), Romi Gonen (24 years) and Doron Steinbrecher (31 years). In the second, on January 24, four of the five welders kidnapped by the Islamist movement during the slaughter of October 7, 2023 were returned to Israel: Naama Levy (20 years), Daniella Gilboa (20 years), Karina Ariev ( 20 years) and Liri Albag (19 years). The third exchange, the greatest release so far the truce, took place on January 30, when Hamas delivered three Israeli hostages – the Military Agam Berger, 20 years old; Arbel Yehud, 29; and Gadi Moshe, 80 – and five Thai workers (whose liberation follows an independent path and that are not included in the list of hostages that the militia has pledged to release in the first phase of high the fire), in a chaotic operation not initially foreseen in the high fire agreement. In the four exchange, on February 1, Hamas gave three civilian men. This is the American-Israeli citizen, Keith Siegel (65 years old), the Franco-Israelí Offer Kalderon (54 years) and Yarden Bibas (35 years). In the fifth exchange, on February 7, the Islamist movement delivered three civilian men: Ohad Ben Ami, 56; Eli Sharabi, 52, and Or Levy, 34; Notably thin and emaciated after 491 days of captivity. On February 15 the sixth exchange took place. Hamas and the Islamic jihad delivered to three civil hostages: Alexander Trufanov, 29; Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, and Iair Horn, 46. On February 20, Hamás has delivered the bodies of the first four dead hostages of the eight he retains in Gaza. They are Shiri Bibas, who was 33 years old when she was kidnapped, and her children Ariel and Kfir – who today would be five and two years respectively, the youngest of the more than 250 hostages taken in the attack of October 7, 2023 – and Oded Lifshitz, 83.
In return, Israel has released more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners so far. It is estimated that in the first phase of Alto El Fuego, they are released around 2,000 detainees in Israeli prisons, which do not include Militiamen de Hamás who participated in the attacks on October 7.
In the enclave there are 69 captives of the 251 hostages kidnapped on October 7, 2023. In the first phase of the agreement, Hamas promised to deliver 33 hostages, of which another four dead and six living remain. The militia has offered to free the latter next Saturday.
